One Hundred Petals
by Roses of Sharon
Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Eight: BashereDiera.
1. o1, LanMoiraine

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. [Part One: LanMoiraine

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part One_

_Lan and Moiraine_

_1. _

"Do you trust me?" he asks her. "With my life," she replies, serenely. It isn't until later that he realizes it isn't an answer.

_2._

Aes Sedai cannot lie. So when they ask her, "Do you love him?" she replies only, "He is my Warder."

_3._

She cannot tell a lie. But she can think one, _Aes Sedai do not love_.

_4._

The first time, it is right before the Last Battle. She wakes up afterwards alone and wondering if she has lost her magic.

_5._

Because she cannot lie, she cannot say "No" when he asks, "Do you want to… love me?"

_6._

After the first time, it is always Lan who wakes up alone. He sees it as revenge. She sees it as self-preservation.

_7._

When he brings her roses, she smiles prettily at him and puts them in a vase. When he brings her wildflowers, she smiles beautifully at him and braids them in her hair.

_8._

She used to hate his detachment. Now, she admires him for it.

_9._

He thought she was a child. She proved she was a woman.

_10._

Moiraine may be a little china doll. But she's _his _little china doll.


	2. o2, LanNynaeve

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. [Part Two: LanNynaeve

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Two_

_Lan and Nynaeve_

_1. _

She is almost as Aes Sedai as any other, more so than any novice. But she can lie. And she does, "I don't want a gift from you."

_2._

He belongs to Moiraine, belongs to her more than he can ever belong to her, because he is a Warder, and he is Moiraine's, and Nynaeve almost thinks she hates the Aes Sedai.

_3._

When she is Aes Sedai and carries an ageless face and cannot lie but cannot love, will he still belong to Moiraine?

_4._

The One Power is startling and beautiful and fulfilling and makes her feel everything joyful and good that she has ever felt. But to her, it means one thing more. It means she cannot be like any (every) other woman. It means she cannot be his wife.

_5._

He is proud and so is she, and they cannot be together because of that (but not only that).

_6._

He is a King, a King without a Crown, without a Land, without a Throne, but he is still a King. And she has never wanted to be Queen.

_7._

He remembers her birthday and brings her flowers, and as she discreetly sniffs them, she also hands them back to him, because she is Nynaeve, the Wisdom of Emond's Field, and she is to be Aes Sedai.

_8._

They are too alike, and as they say, opposites attract. So they love each other and hate each other and can never, never be together.

_9._

When he promises that he would come to her immediately, no matter what, he knows that to do so is to abandon Moiraine, to leave the one he had Bonded with, but he still does.

_10._

When she lifts her hands to his face and holds him like she does, he has never been happier to know that he chose not to be King.


	3. o3, RandEgwene

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. [Part Three: RandEgwene

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Three_

_Rand and Egwene_

_1. _

She refuses to love him, because he is Rand and she is Egwene, and it just isn't right.

_2._

When they were young, once upon a forgotten time, he had asked her to marry her and she had said yes. Now they are older, wiser, more jaded – and she would say no. But he does not ask.

_3._

She hero-worships Moiraine, because Moiraine, to her, is every ideal but one. (The one is her inability to show love.)

_4._

He is the Dragon Reborn (she knows this now), but even as she is forced to gentle him, she loves him.

_5._

"I'm sorry," she says, and he only nods, because he knows exactly why.

_6._

He is the King of a country that no longer lives, but she, like Nynaeve, would rather not be Queen.

_7._

He doesn't bring her flowers or gifts, except when she is angry with him, so she comes to resent the sight of the gardens he stole them from.

_8._

Her hair is free as a signal of her new life, and as he runs his hands through it, he is pleased.

_9._

To think and to be are completely different things, and Rand and Egwene know this well. (In their dreams, they are together, upon awakening, they are apart).

_10._

Egwene will never be as beautiful as Moiraine or Nynaeve. But she will never be as distant, either, and Rand prefers the woman he can hold to the ones he cannot.


	4. o4, RandMin

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Four: RandMin.

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Four_

_Rand and Min_

_1. _

In the beginning, she didn't love him and he didn't love her. Now?

_2._

She doesn't believe in love at first sight, because it didn't work for her.

_3._

Her visions have never lied to her before, but she hopes not that they do.

_4._

Sometimes, when she touches him, she remembers that he's not hers, and she can almost cry. (But he doesn't know.)

_5._

She isn't Aes Sedai, just a girl with a gift, and maybe that's why he loves her.

_6._

Once, Min dreamed of being Queen. Now, the chance is offered her and she says no.

_7._

Her ability to lie makes her real in his eyes, because it means she says things as they are meant or as they are not, and does not twist words around to suit her fancy.

_8._

She tries to rationalize giving up Egwene for Rand in her mind, but it never comes out balanced (because she remembers the promise she made, once upon a time, that a man would never break their friendship.)

_9._

Min never quite forgets Rand, because he was her first love – but first love is always doomed.

_10._

She sees what is and what isn't, but she wishes now that she doesn't know.


	5. o5, RandElayne

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Five: RandElayne

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Three_

_Rand and Elayne_

_1. _

She always thinks of him as Egwene's, because that's how she came to know him, but maybe-maybe-maybe he's a little bit hers too, now.

_2._

She's a Princess, and she will be Queen, and he's King, so what could be better?

_3._

She doesn't think this is a romance, because she's bearing his child and their not married, and he's not with her.

_4._

She's inordinately proud to be bearing his child, even as she realizes that no one must know about it.

_5._

He knows she carries his heir in her womb, but he also knows that he loves the child more than he loves her.

_6._

And Min watches them and pities her, because she knows this bit of the future, at least: that Rand has another waiting for him.

_7._

At the core, the Dragon Reborn is still just a man.

_8._

And Elayne, the Heir to the Rose Crown and the Sunset Throne, is still just a woman.

_9._

It wasn't exactly a one-night stand, because she didn't wake up alone and neither did he, but it wasn't anything more or anything else, either.

_10._

That Night, which warrants capitals because it will always be That Night to Elayne, is burned in her memory – every move, every sound, every touch.


	6. o6, LewsLanfear

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Six: LewsLanfear.

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Three_

_Lews Therin and Lanfear_

_1. _

Theirs is a union fated by the Wheel and the Snake and everything in between, because Lews Therin is so strongly ta'veren he stinks of it, but Lanfear (not-Lanfear, before-Lanfear) cannot help but draw ever closer.

_2._

As honey to bees is Lews to Lanfear, or perhaps, and more likely, the other way around.

_3._

She's beautiful in ways he is not, but then again, so is he.

_4._

He protects her, and she never tells him she doesn't need it.

_5._

She thinks of him as hers, not only in the way lovers belong to each other, not only in the way husbands and wives belong to each other, but in the way _mates _belong to each other.

_6._

Long after their love has turned bitter and the taste of him in her mouth is sour, she hangs on.

_7._

Though he is dead and she is Forsaken, she cannot help but be drawn to the man she once-upon-a-time-maybe loved.

_8._

When she feels him awakening on the Dragonmount, she feels happiness for the first time in hundreds of years, but it is followed only by greed and lust, never love.

_9._

Ever more, she draws him to her, like a spider and its web.

_10._

She wonders, dimly, in the part of her that remembers before-Lanfear, when she was just a girl in love, if history repeats itself.


	7. o7, PerrinFaile

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Eight: PerrinFaile.

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Eight_

_Perrin and Faile_

_1. _

They are fated to be together, though Perrin is not so strongly ta'veren as either Rand nor Lews Therin. He likes it this way, because he thinks that this way, she had a choice.

_2._

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel will, but this time, Rand is more than happy to follow along.

_3._

They are different people, very different, but maybe, _maybe_, this can work.

_4._

He's searching for her with everything he's got, but every day, what he has grows less.

_5._

She's waiting for him because she _believes_, but ever day, hope grows dimmer. And on some days, she is left to wonder whether he is coming at all.

_6._

She waits and waits and waits and maybe she's starting to doubt him, but still, she waits, because there is no other option.

_7._

Sometimes she thinks she deserves a storybook ending, a happily ever after, but then she remembers that not all stories have happily-ever-afters and contents herself with this grey-white-black in-between.

_8._

When he comes, she should be happy, and she is, but she's too tired to be as excited as she should be, and she only clings to him and laughs and cries and sleeps.

_9._

He's not so sure that he's loved her since the beginning, but he sure as heck loves her now.

_10._

He offers her it all, and she is the only one who accepts, and theirs is the only love story come true.


	8. o8, BashereDiera

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Wheel of Time_. It belongs to Robert Jordan.

Summary: Petals dropping, one by one, a moment, a dream, a lifetime. Part Seven: BashereDiera.

_One Hundred Petals_

_Part Seven_

_Bashere and Diera_

_1. _

She is not like most women, but that's alright, because he's not like most men.

_2._

"If I wanted a mouse, I would've married one," he tells her angrily. She barely looks at him, "I apologize, my Lord." And he is furious.

_3._

They argue more than they hug, and their times in bed are fights for dominance, but it is love nonetheless.

_4._

If he tells her he's worried, she laughs. If he shows her he's worried, she lets him.

_5._

To anyone who doesn't pay attention, they are nothing to one another. To anyone who does, they are the world.

_6._

They are alike and they are different, but what matters most is that they are _together_.

_7._

The moment he is awake, he sees her, and she tells him she hates him in the softest voice he has ever heard her use.

_8._

They ride side by side into the Last Battle, another thing unheard of that they have done.

_9._

He's destined to die in battle, but then again – so is she. They only wonder (_hope_) if it will be the same one.

_10._

And so they do, and theirs is the second dream to come true, because there are so few dreams now that come true, and they are pleased, even as they die.


End file.
